In Vitro Effects of Some Insecticides on Rumen Fluid Fermentation

A study to investigate the effects of different levels (0,5,10 and 15ppm) of three insecticides (Endosulfan, Phosalone and Chlorpyrifos) on rumen fluid fermentation characteristics (rumen pH, rumen ammonia, rumen V FA and in vitro dry matter disappearance) was carried out in the laboratory of biology in the University of Gezira, Wad Medani, Sudan in 1998. The study indicated that all the levels of each insecticide significantly (P<0.05) inhibited the in vitro dry matter disappearance )IVDMD), the rumen fluid volatile fatty acids and the rumen fluid total protozoa, and elevated the rumen fluid ammonia compared to the control. However, the rumen fluid pH was not affected. Also, the study revealed that endosulfan significantly (P<0.05) inhibited the rumen protozoa and the IVDMD percent than both phosalpne and chlorpyrifos

Symposium: Can intellectual history be done otherwise?

Using Shahzad Bashir’s open-access publication A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures as a baseline, this symposium debates whether and how intellectual history can be done otherwise. Mohamed ‘Arafa follows Bashir’s invitation to explore the potential of open-ended historiographies when he thinks about the viability of a flexible method to interpret Sharī͑a. Nader El-Bizri interrogates whether the assemblage of personal experiential accounts offered by Bashir can be framed within the discourse of intellectual history at all. Nauman Faizi reads Bashir’s approach as a radical attempt to open up hermeneutical possibilities. Lena Salaymeh suggests that modern aesthetics can contribute to neo-colonial distortions of the Islamic tradition, rather than offering alternatives to positivist historiography. Bashir proposes in his response that academics adopt generosity as an analytical gesture in their academic writing, a generosity that would enable different ways of being human in the world

Impact of meningitis on intelligence and development: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to address the question "what is the impact of meningitis on IQ and development." METHODS: Search: conducted using standardized search terms across Medline, PsychInfo and EMBASE to 06/2014. Eligibility: human studies of any infectious aetiology of meningitis reporting IQ or infant developmental age or stage outcomes. Quality: Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Oxford, quality tools. Analysis: random effects meta-analysis by organism. RESULTS: 39 studies were included in the review, 34 providing data on IQ (2015 subjects) and 12 on developmental delay (382 subjects). Across all bacterial organisms, meningitis survivors had a mean IQ 5.50 (95% CI: -7.19, -3.80; I2 = 47%, p = 0.02) points lower than controls. IQ was significantly lower than controls for Neisseria meningitides (NM: 5 points) and Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib: 6 points) but not in viral meningitis, with only single studies included for Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) and group B streptococcus (GBS). The pooled relative risk (RR) for low IQ (IQ<70) in survivors of bacterial meningitis compared with controls was 4.99 (95% CI: 3.17, 7.86) with no significant heterogeneity (I2 = 49%, p = 0.07). Developmental delay of approximately 0.5SD was reported in studies of bacterial meningitis but no delay in the only study of viral meningitis. CONCLUSIONS: We found moderate evidence that surviving bacterial meningitis has a deleterious impact on IQ and development but no evidence that viral meningitis had meaningful cognitive impacts. Survivors of bacterial meningitis should be routinely offered screening for cognitive deficits and developmental delay in addition to hearing loss

Viral respiratory infections at the Hajj: comparison between UK and Saudi pilgrims

ABSTRACTA high incidence of respiratory infection, including influenza, has been reported at the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Reported rates of influenza have been higher among UK than among domestic pilgrims, but this could be explained by methodological differences among studies. Accordingly, the present study compared the frequencies of respiratory viruses among UK and Saudi pilgrims using the same study design. Pilgrims with upper respiratory tract symptoms were recruited from Mecca and the neighbouring valley Mina during the Hajj 2006. Nasal swabs were used for point-of-care influenza testing and real-time RT-PCR (rtRT-PCR) tests for influenza virus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus and respiratory syncytial virus. Of 260 pilgrims investigated, 150 were from the UK and 110 were Saudi; of these, 38 (25%) UK pilgrims and 14 (13%) Saudi pilgrims had respiratory infections detectable by rtRT-PCR (p 0.01). In the UK group, there were 19 (13%) cases of rhinovirus infection, 15 (10%) cases of influenza virus infection, two (1%) cases of dual infections with influenza virus and rhinovirus, one (3%) case of parainfluenza virus infection, and one (1%) case of respiratory syncytial virus infection. Fifty-six (37%) UK pilgrims had been vaccinated against influenza virus, with the rates of influenza in the vaccinated and unvaccinated group being 7% and 14%, respectively (p 0.19). In the Saudi group, there were three (3%) cases of rhinovirus infection and 11 (10%) cases of influenza. Only four (4%) Saudi pilgrims had been vaccinated against influenza virus, and none of these was infected with influenza virus. Overall, a significantly higher proportion of the UK pilgrims had detectable respiratory infections (25% vs. 13%, p 0.01). Influenza rates were similar in both groups, but the reported rates of influenza vaccination differed

Covers of acts over monoids and pure epimorphisms

In 2001 Enochs' celebrated flat cover conjecture was finally proven and the proofs (two different proofs were presented in the same paper [5]) have since generated a great deal of interest among researchers. In particularthe results have been recast in a number of other categories and in particular for additive categories (see for example [2], [3], [23] and [24]). In 2008, Mahmoudi and Renshaw considered a similar problem for acts overmonoids but used a slightly different definition of cover. They proved that in general their definition was not equivalent to Enochs', except in the projective case, and left open a number of questions regarding the `other' definition. This `other' definition is the subject of the present paper and we attempt to emulate some of Enochs' work for the category of acts over monoids and concentrate, in the main, on strongly flat acts. We hope to extend this work to other classes of acts, such as injective, torsionfree, divisible and free, in a future report

Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus infections in British Hajj pilgrims

Viral respiratory infections including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have been reported during the Hajj among international pilgrims. To help establish the burden of these infections at the Hajj, we set up a study to confirm these diagnoses in symptomatic British pilgrims who attended the 2005 Hajj. UK pilgrims with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) were invited to participate; after taking medical history, nasal swabs were collected for point-of-care testing (PoCT) of influenza and for subsequent PCR analysis for influenza and RSV. Of the 205 patients recruited, 37 (18%) were positive for either influenza or RSV. Influenza A (H3) accounted for 54% (20/37) of the virus-positive samples, followed by RSV 24% (9/37), influenza B 19% (7/37), and influenza A (H1) 3% (1/37). Of the influenza-positive cases, 29% (8/28) had recently had a flu immunisation. Influenza was more common in those who gave a history of contact with a pilgrim with a respiratory illness than those who did not (17 versus 9%). The overall rate of RSV was 4% (9/202). This study confirms that influenza and RSV cause acute respiratory infections in British Hajj pilgrims. Continuing surveillance and a programme of interventions to contain the spread of infection are needed at the Hajj, particularly when the world is preparing for an influenza pandemic

Pharmacological screening of Viola Odorata L. for memory-enhancing effect via modulation of oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers

Purpose: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. The present study aimed to characterize and then investigate the memory-enhancing potential of Viola odorata methanolic extract in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)–treated mice. Methods: V. odorata characterization was done by using the GCMS technique. Neuroinflammation was induced by the intracerebroventricular administration of LPS at a dose of 12 μg. Animals were divided randomly into six groups (n 10). Group I was normal control, which was given vehicle. Group II was disease control, which received LPS (12 μg) via the intracerebroventricular route. Group III was standard, which was administered with donepezil (3 μg) orally for 21 days. Groups IV–VI were the treatment groups, which were administered with the extract at 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg dose levels orally respectively for 21 days. Groups III–VI received LPS (12 μg) on the first day along with their treatments. During the treatment, the animals were assessed for memory retention by employing different behavioral paradigms namely elevated plus maze, passive avoidance, foot shock and open field. Various mediators [endogenous antioxidants, neurotransmitters, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE)] involved in the pathogenesis of AD were quantified by using the UV spectrophotometric method. Results: Extract-treated groups showed a remarkable improvement in cognitive impairment in all behavioral paradigms. Oxidative stress biomarkers, that is, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione were raised dose-dependently in the treatment groups with a dose-dependent decrease in the malonaldehyde and AChE levels in the brains of the treated animals. The treatment groups showed decreased levels of inflammatory biomarkers, that is, tumor necrosis factor–alpha, nuclear factor kappa light-chain enhancer of activated β-cells, and cyclo-oxygenase, which supports the therapeutic effectiveness of the treatment. Conclusion: Based on behavioral, oxidative stress biomarker, and neuroinflammatory data, it is concluded that V. odorata possesses memory-enhancing activity and may prove a beneficial role in the management of AD.peer-reviewe

State sampling dependence of the Hopfield network inference

The fully connected Hopfield network is inferred based on observed magnetizations and pairwise correlations. We present the system in the glassy phase with low temperature and high memory load. We find that the inference error is very sensitive to the form of state sampling. When a single state is sampled to compute magnetizations and correlations, the inference error is almost indistinguishable irrespective of the sampled state. However, the error can be greatly reduced if the data is collected with state transitions. Our result holds for different disorder samples and accounts for the previously observed large fluctuations of inference error at low temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, further discussions added and relevant references adde

Are the distributions of variations of circle of Willis different in different populations? – Results of an anatomical study and review of literature

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have proposed correlation between variants of the cerebral arterial circle (also known as circle of Willis) and some cerebrovascular diseases. Differences in the incidence of these diseases in different populations have also been investigated. The study of variations in the anatomy of the cerebral arterial circle may partially explain differences in the incidence of some of the cerebrovascular diseases in different ethnic or racial groups. While many studies have investigated the variations in the anatomy of each segment of the cerebral arterial circle, few have addressed the variants of the cerebral arterial circle as a whole. Similarly, the frequency of occurrence of such variants in different ethnic or racial groups has not been compared. METHODS: 102 brains of recently deceased Iranian males were dissected, in order to observe variations in the anatomy of the cerebral arterial circle. The dissection process was recorded on film and digitized. One resized picture from each dissection, showing complete circle has been made available online. The variations of the circle as whole and segmental variations were compared with previous studies. RESULTS: On the whole, the frequencies of the different variants of the entire cerebral arterial circle and segmental variations were comparable with previous studies. More specifically variants with uni- and bilateral hypoplasia of posterior communicating arteries were the most common in our study, similar to the previous works. No hypoplasia of the precommunicating part of the left anterior cerebral artery (A1), aplasia of A1 or the precommunicating part of the posterior cerebral artery (P1) was seen. In 3% both right and left posterior communcating arteries were absent. CONCLUSION: The anatomical variations found in the cerebral arterial circle of the Iranian males in the current study were not significantly different to those of more diverse populations reported in the literature. While taking into account potential confounding factors, the authors conclude that based on available studies, there is no evidence suggesting that the distributions of the variations of cerebral arterial circle differ in different populations

Overview of biologically digested leachate treatment using adsorption

Biological process is effective in treating most biodegradable organic matter present in leachate; however, a significant amount of ammonia, metals and refractory organic compounds may still remain in this biologically digested leachate. This effluent cannot be released to receiving bodies until the discharge limit is met. Several physical/chemical processes have been practiced as post-treatment to remove the remaining pollutants including coagulation–flocculation, oxidation and adsorption. Adsorption is often applied in leachate treatment as it enhances removal of refractory organic compounds. This chapter will focus on works related to adsorption as one of the commonly used methods to treat biologically digested leachate further down to acceptable discharge limit